The invention relates to a pack made of foldable packaging material, in particular cuboid-shaped (cigarette) pack made of paper, paperboard or similar packaging material, comprising a front wall, rear wall, side walls as well as base wall and end wall, with the end wall being delimited from adjacent walls by a free border edge or folding edge.
The invention is concerned primarily with cigarette packs of the soft-pack or soft-carton-pack type, in particular to further developments of, and improvements to, cigarette packs according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,218 and EP 0,649,797. The special feature of the aforementioned cigarette packs is that they (may) consist of a single blank. In this case, according to one embodiment, a part of the pack with a front wall, rear wall and side walls, this part being referred to as the carton, is separated off from an end wall by a Z-shaped fold. This design of the soft (-carton) pack makes it possible to dispense with an otherwise conventional inner wrapper made of tin foil or paper.
The invention is concerned primarily with an opening aid for packs of the type introduced above. One such pack which is known is one for xe2x80x9ccherootsxe2x80x9d, which is shaped like a pouch and has a strip-like tear-off flap. This is folded such that a gripping end of the tear-off flap projects laterally into the region of and above the end wall. When the tear-off flap is gripped, an upper partial region of a narrow, upright side wall is detached along perforation lines, forming a side opening for gripping the xe2x80x9ccherootsxe2x80x9d. Due to the pouch-like design, the end wall of this type of pack is open or covered by an outer wrapper of film, which must be removed separately.
The object of the invention is to design the pack introduced above in such a way that facilitates opening of the pack when it is used for the first time, even if the end wall is closed.
To achieve this object, the pack according to the invention is characterized by the following features:
a) a tear-off flap is formed in the region of the end wall,
b) the tear-off flap is bounded by a weakened line or a perforation line,
c) the tear-off flap has a grip tab for separating the tear-off flap from the end wall,
d) in the unopened pack, the grip tab projects over the border edge or folding edge of the end wall as part of the tear-off flap.
The freely projecting flap arranged in the manner of the invention may be detached by hand, the opening flap or a grip tab being part of a tear-open flap defined by perforations or other weakening lines. Said tear-open flap is removed with the aid of the grip tab so as form a removal opening for the pack contents, that is to say for the cigarettes
The opening flap can be used, in particular, in the case of (cigarette) packs in which a Z-fold is formed adjacent to the end wall. The opening flap is formed by punched lines of the blank such that, when the Z-fold is produced, the grip tab is not folded along therewith, as a continuation of a leg of the Z-fold, and thus passes into a position which is favourable for use.
A cigarette pack of optimum design is formed in accordance with EP 0 649 797 and is provided with an opening aid according to the invention in the region of the end wall. In this case, the opening flap is provided in the region of a narrow side wall, with the result that a sub-region of the end wall can be removed with the aid of the tear-open flap.
Further features relate to the configuration of the (cigarette) pack in the region of a base wall and of the end wall of the same, in particular in terms of the design of reinforcements of the base wall and of the configuration of the folding tab.